I haven’t paid much attention to Lady Gaga’s music since 2011’s Born This Way, and apparently I’m not alone.
After the multi-Platinum success of 2008’s The Fame and Born This Way, Gaga saw diminishing returns for her next few albums. That included 2016’s Joanne, a move away from dance pop to soft rock. She also recorded and toured classic tunes with Tony Bennett and launched a decent acting career.
Jason Isbell has quietly become one of the most reliable and talented singer-songwriters working today. For two decades, the native Alabaman has filtered his highs and lows through his distinctly southern perspective and set them to heart-tugging melodies.
His latest album, Foxes in the Snow, is his tenth. Every one of those solo studio releases is somewhere between great and excellent. If you’ve never heard him, start from the beginning and work your way through. I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Like Haim, Lorde has taken a long break between albums. Her third effort, Solar Power, came out in 2021.
That folk pop record was a departure from her usual sound, and it was met with a lukewarm response both critically and commercially. I was one of the detractors, finding it a rather dull follow-up to 2017’s excellent Melodrama.
Now she’s back, having nursed the wounds of Solar Power‘s reception, with Virgin, an album that finds her back in the synth-pop groove of her early work.
The Los Angeles sister trio Haim is back with their fourth album, I quit. This is their first release since 2020’s Women in Music Pt. III, a record I really loved.
This album comes on the heels of a break-up that had both personal and professional ramifications. Lead singer Danielle split from longtime boyfriend Ariel Rechtshaid, who was also a producer and co-writer on the band’s first three albums. That makes I quit a potent break-up album as well as a (relatively) new sonic direction for Haim.
The week of July 13, 1965, saw a couple of repeats atop the Billboard Hot 100 in The Rolling Stones’ ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction‘ and Four Tops’ ‘I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch).’
At #3 that week, on its way to #1, was ‘I’m Henry VIII, I Am’ by Herman’s Hermits. At 1:50, this is one of the shortest songs to ever top the Hot 100.
Meet Me In Montauk 